]]
Publications
Griffith University and the Department of the Environment, Sport & Territories, 1997
ISBN 0 868 57655 7
The rapid development of an industrialised society in Australia over the past 200 years has been made possible through the availability of abundant natural resources. It is possible that the way we have managed these resources could threaten the natural systems on which our social and economic development depends. Australian governments, companies and organisations are attempting to develop strategies based on the principles of ecologically sustainable development to ensure that the natural environment will continue to support future generations.
The workshop centres on the seven module topics that are the focus of this manual. It provides an introduction to the nature and scope of each of these topics as a foundation for later in-depth studies. It also highlights the interdependence of these topics and how social, economic and environmental processes are related. It demonstrates that changes to the way resources are used is possible and that we can solve environmental problems.
During this workshop participants will:
A brief introduction and rationale for the workshop.
An introduction to the inter-connectedness of environmental problems and issues through a group activity called 'woolly webs'. It concludes with a mini-lecture identifying the extent, effects and costs of the environmental questions, issues and problems to be addressed in this manual.
Participants work individually and then in pairs to analyse the impacts of the manual's topics. The process of Strategic Questions developed by Peavy (1992) are presented in a mini-lecture, and then used by participants to develop the critical thinking skills needed to understand environmental questions, issues and problems, and to act on this understanding.
The range of considerations necessary for teaching about controversial issues in the classroom is explored so that teachers can operate professionally and ethically. A mini-lecture provides guidelines on ways of adopting a positive and optimistic approach to teaching about the manual's topics.
OHT 1: Environmental Issues
OHT 2 : Characteristics of Effective Teachers of Environmental Issues
Resource 1: Environmental Protection Issues
Resource 2: Strategic Questioning
Resource 3: Strategic Questions
Resource 4: Approaching Environmental Issues in the Classroom
Activity 2: Seven coloured balls of wool, seven coloured pens (same colours as wool), butcher's paper, labels
Fien, J. (1988) Education for the Australian Environment. Bicentennial Australian Studies Schools Project Bulletin 6, Curriculum Development Centre, Canberra
Forge, K. (1993) Pasture Watch: A Study of Native Pasture Ecosystems (Classroom Activities). Queensland Government Printer.
Peavy, F. (1994) By Life's Grace: Musings on the Essence of Social Change. New Society Publishers, Philadelphia, pp. 86-111.
Pennock, M. and Bardwell, L. (1994) Approaching Environmental Issues in the Classroom. Environmental Education Toolbox Workshop Resource Manual, National Centre for Environmental Education and Training, University of Michigan.
Selby, D. and Pike, G. (1987) Global Teacher: Global Learner. Hodder and Stoughton, London.
Stradling, R., Noctor, M. and Baines, B. (19 ) Teaching Controversial Issues, Edward Arnold, London.
Using the introduction, objectives and workshop outline, present an overview of the scope and purpose of the workshop.
Obtain seven different coloured balls of wool, seven pens/crayons which approximately match these colours and enough labels for each participant. Label separate pieces of butcher's paper titled with following topics and put them up around the wall: Cleaner Production, Waste Management, Environmental Auditing, Environmental Impact Assessment, Water Pollution, Air Pollution, Risk Management.
Split participants into seven groups with a minimum of three people in each one. Allocate each group a topic and label participants. Ask them to record the extent of their knowledge of the topic (including extent, causes and solutions to problems).
Ask each group to nominate a 'static negotiator' (SN). Each SN ties a coloured ball of wool around their waist and holds onto the ball. The seven SNs stand beside their butcher's paper, forming a large circle approximately five to six metres across. Other group members become 'mobile negotiators' (MN) who move around the circle (with the ball of wool and coloured pen that represents their own topic) and determine, with the SNs, if their topics are linked. When a link is negotiated, the MNs topic and the reasons that link the topics are written on the butcher's paper and the MN loops the ball of wool around the appropriate SN's waist. The wool is then taken back to the group's SN and looped around him/her as well, making a physical link between each topic. Keep the wool taut at all times. Repeat the process until all possible connections have been explored. SNs then sit down where they are, keeping the wool taut, and the MNs stand behind them. The end result is called a 'woolly web'.
Debrief by discussing the connections made. Questions might include:
Conclude with a mini-lecture outlining the extent, effects and costs of the environmental questions, issues and problems to be addressed in this manual. Use Resource 1 and OHT 1.
Present a mini-lecture on Strategic Questioning based on Resources 2 and 3.
Ask participants to engage in Strategic Questioning in pairs. Ask each pair to nominate a 'listener' and a 'speaker'. The 'listener' asks questions of the 'speaker' and then roles are reversed. Distribute Resource 3 to each participant. Each pair chooses one topic on OHT 1 for discussion. Instruct the speaker to think of a specific situation regarding that topic, so their thinking and answers are better focused. Pairs then work through the strategic questions in Resource 3 (show these as an OHT for the duration of the activity). Remind participants that they do not need to ask all of the questions in each set and to word questions in a way that feels natural for them. Pairs then reverse their roles, i.e. 'listener' becomes 'speaker' and vice versa.
Debrief by sharing how participants felt about the activity. Questions might include:
Present a mini-lecture on 'Approaching Environmental Issues in the Classroom' using Resource 4. Emphasise the impossibility of 'values neutral' teaching given the influence that our socio-economic context has on all of us. Instead, it is important to ensure that the quality of evidence used in the classroom is as objective as possible, and that students have an opportunity to express their own views. Conclude with OHT 2 . Be open to questions along the way.
Distribute a copy of OHTs 2 and 3 to each participant. Invite discussion on the relative merits of each of the characteristics identified, and the possible obstacles to fostering these characteristics, and how these obstacles might be overcome. Questions might include:
Is the list of characteristics that have been identified exhaustive? If not, what else should have been included?
Cleaner Production
Waste Management
Environmental Auditing
Environmental Impact Assessment
Water Pollution
Air Pollution
Risk Management
(Reprinted with permission from Pennock, M. and Bardwell, L. (1994) Approaching Environmental Issues in the Classroom, National Centre for Environmental Education and Training, University of Michigan.)
Dealing with values in the classroom
Strategies for a professional and ethical approach to controversial issues
This teacher education project on environmental protection issues contains modules on the following topics:
Water Pollution
Australia is the driest inhabited continent in the world. All water is precious. Water pollution from industrial waste, sewage and agricultural runoff can threaten the health and livelihood of all Australians by damaging natural ecosystems. Water pollution is an economic, social and political problem. It is an outcome of the low value people sometimes place on water quality and its availability. Total catchment strategies must be regionally adopted to enhance the sustainability of all land uses within a catchment.
Waste Management
In Australia today, significant volumes of solid waste are being produced from all sectors of the community, ranging from industry to the general public. In many cities, landfills are now full to overflowing, toxic waste dumps are contentious community issues and waste disposal costs to taxpayers are rising rapidly. The federal Environment Protection Agency - has developed a National Waste Minimisation Strategy to address the problems of waste generation and landfill disposal. The community must develop means to manage and minimise waste by reducing it, reusing it, recycling it or removing it.
Cleaner Production
Today industry operates in an environment in which resources are becoming scarcer, competition tougher and increasing restrictions are being placed on environmental pollution. There is increasing pressure to achieve improved environmental performance. Industries are increasingly looking to the environment and the community's interest in the environment for ways to gain a competitive advantage. The goal of cleaner production is essentially the same as the goal of sustainable development: production processes, product cycles and consumption patterns which allow for human development and the provision of basic needs without degrading and disrupting the ecosystems within which that development must occur.
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)
The environmental impacts of new developments must be considered in development proposals. EIA processes enable decisions to be made as to whether a development should proceed or if its design should be modified before the project can commence. EIA arose out of environmental concern. Its processes include scoping, predicting and evaluating the potential impacts of a proposed project and monitoring the resulting impacts of the amended design. Community participation is a key aspect of EIA, allowing stakeholders to comment on how they perceive the impacts of a proposal on their communities.
Air Pollution
World wide, rising air pollution affects human health, adds to water pollution and damages plants and soil. It also affects the global climate and depletes the ozone layer. Air pollution may be defined as events which add to, or subtract from, the usual constituents of air and alter its physical or chemical properties. Pollutants are usually considered to be those substances added to the air in sufficient concentration to produce a measurable effect on humans or other animals, and vegetation or materials such as stone or steel structures. Excess heat or noise can also be considered forms of air pollution. As air pollution knows no boundaries, national and international avoidance and control strategies are vital in lessening the impacts of air pollution.
Environmental Auditing
How healthy are the environments we live in and how can we determine their state of health? The processes of environmental reviews, audits and State of the Environment reporting can help governments and industry achieve improved environmental performances. Auditing is of little value unless it occurs within a management framework which enables a set of criteria to be developed against which performance can be assessed. Management plans must outline strategies that will achieve and monitor ongoing and optimum health for an environment.
Risk Management
All chemicals, including common household and naturally occurring chemicals are potentially toxic at some levels of exposure. Perceptions of risk vary widely and issues of chemical risk are never black and white. The process of risk management includes the assessment of the level of both perceived and actual risk of exposure to the chemical, hazard (or potential harm) identification and knowledge about the toxicity of the chemical. Then informed decisions can be made regarding use of that chemical and the development of strategies to minimise the possibility of harm from exposure to the chemical.
Source: Adapted from Peavy, F. (1994) By Life's Grace: Musings on the Essence of Social Change. New Society Publishers, Philadelphia, pp. 86-111.
Currently, Australian governments and companies are attempting to develop strategies based on the principles of ecologically sustainable development. This will involve change for all Australians. Change is often accompanied by a range of uncomfortable emotions including denial, fear and resistance. However, it also provides opportunities for new ideas to emerge.
Strategic Questioning is a form of questioning (or consulting) designed to assist the integration of new ideas and strategies, such as ecologically sustainable development, into the development of communities in a way that people feel comfortable with. Strategic Questioning has been developed by Fran Peavy, a social change worker from North America.
There are six 'question families' used in Strategic Questioning. These move from introductory questions through to more dynamic and significant questions. These question families are presented in Resource 3.
Strategic Questioning relies on societies creating their own solutions to their own problems. For example, Strategic Questioning has been used in India as a means of identifying strategies of action for improving water quality in the Ganges River. Local people are, in partnership with the government, engaged in actions to clean up the river for themselves and their children.
One of the assumptions behind the Strategic Questioning process is that questions have the potential to be significant. Some questions are more significant than others depending on the circumstances, or context, in which they are asked.
It is very important to listen to the answers that are given to questions, and to consider all answers equally.
1. Observation questions
For example:
2. Feelings/affective questions
For example:
3. Visioning questions
For example:
4. Change questions
For example:
5. Personal inventory and support questions
For example:
6. Personal action questions
For example:
There are diverse points of view about environmental issues. The community is often divided over decisions that affect the management of resources and environments, including those presented in this workshop's activities. Teachers cannot ignore this community context. They require strategies for handling potentially controversial issues in a professionally ethical way. They must first recognise that different values will emerge in classroom discussion and activities, and that it is important to deal with these conflicts in a way that avoids indoctrination. The following five principles appear in Fien (1988) and are of assistance in dealing with values in the classroom:
OHT 2 presents a similar list of suggested characteristics/attributes of teachers when handling values in the classroom. Read through these with the group. Teachers also require strategies for handling potentially controversial issues in a professionally ethical way. There are no clear rules for doing this. However, Fien (1988) advises that issues-based teaching is both plausible and necessary. Strategies for achieving this are many and varied. OHT 2 also presents a summary of suggested strategies and principles for handling controversy in a way that is both professional and ethical.
